Forbes: Rising Middle East Natural Gas Demand Boosts U.S. LNG

Although holding just 3% of the global population, the Middle East consumes nearly 15% of the world’s natural gas, or about 15.5 Tcf per year. The Middle East does have over 40% of the world’s proven natural gas reserves, but just two countries, Iran and Qatar, account for 80% of that.

Driven by ample resources, population growth, strong economic factors, urbanization, de-salinization plants, a boom in the industrial sector led by the rapidly expanding petrochemical business using gas as a feedstock, and policies that have kept end-user prices at very low levels, the Middle East’s gas demand has been rising by about 7% per year since the early-2000s.

At over 50% of all energy demand, the Middle East has one of the highest reliances on natural gas.

In fact, gas and oil so dominate in the Middle East that no other energy source even registers as a percentage of use. Looking forward, the electricity sector and industry will constitute 50% and 35% respectively of new gas demand in the region. MORE